Just Tell Her (Chicago #2) by Nicole Pyland
- Publisher: Pyland Publishing LLC, 2018
- Genre: Romance, LGBTQ+
- Format: Ebook
- Page Count: 361 pages
- My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
Charlie Adams has been in love with her best friend Hailey Grant for over ten years. She has watched her date all the wrong women and is convinced that Hailey does not love her more than a friend. When Hailey’s first love, aka the perfect ex-girlfriend Emma Colton, is back in the picture, Charlie cannot take it anymore. She has to confess her feelings. In the meantime, Hailey has just started to feel something different for Charlie. Will the two be willing to risk friendship for a future together as lovers?
Please note that there are uses of ableist language in the book.
Apart from romance in academia, I love a good best-friend romance. I think these are the two types of romance I love most. There is something beautiful about knowing someone for a very long time as a best friend, moving on to dating, and then sharing a future together as a couple.
This is the third book in the Chicago series, and I definitely suggest reading them in order as I did. I find myself falling in love with the characters again and again. I don’t know how Pyland managed to create all these amazingly fleshed out strong women, but I love that. After finishing The Best Lines, I especially looked forward to Just Tell Her because Charlie and Hailey are best friends and also Charlie has been forever pining for Hailey. But it took them years to recognize their mutual attraction, so how can their relationship be smooth?
Watching them date other people is really painful, but I like that we get to live through those times as well. Throughout the whole story, Charlie and Hailey are constantly in one-step-forward-two-steps-back situations. It was frustrating to read, yet so them. Charlie lacks the feeling of being safe. She is scared of the dark, creepy dolls, and most of all, trusting herself. Her other best friend Ember sometimes needs to run numbers for her to feel better about her decisions. And Hailey is unsure if she can ever live up to the expectations of Charlie’s love. Both Charlie and Hailey have been wonderful best friends, but being involved romantically turns out to be harder than ever, even though they are obviously meant to be with each other.
The only issue I have with the story apart from editing, which I am not going to address from now on, is Hailey’s ableist outburst at one point. Other than that, the book is wonderful.
Just Tell Her is an amazing story about two best friends falling in love. While both are trying to avoid their love for each other because of their own insecurities and it is so frustrating to read, I love how both Charlie and Hailey are incredibly romantic. Their date plans, loving gestures, and how well they know each other just warm my heart. I will definitely revisit this book for its romance. After my third Pyland book, she is now officially on my auto-read author list. [1 Jul 2020]
